INDIANAPOLIS — Jackson Systems LLC has announced its new patent pending Barometric Zone Damper™ (BZD), which the company says eliminates the need for a costly and time consuming bypass damper installation.

According to Jackson Systems, the BZD damper works like any standard damper with one exception — it has a built-in barometric relief mechanism that does away with the need for a bypass damper. A typical HVAC system is designed around 0.1 inches wc. Tests indicate that a system can handle 0.3 inches wc or double the rated cfm through the registers before noise becomes a problem. Unlike a standard zone damper, the BZD has been designed with both a fixed and a hinged blade and is controlled by an actuator. The upper half of the blade is fixed to the shaft of the damper and the lower half is hinged to the upper half of the blade. The lower half of the blade then functions as a barometric pressure relief for the system.

The BZD damper will allow the barometric half of the closed zone damper to open and bleed a small amount of air into the zones that are not calling, keeping the system static pressure at an acceptable level. Tests also indicate that bleeding a small amount of conditioned air to the zone(s) that are not calling has little impact on the temperature in the zone(s) because in most cases they are above or below setpoint, so the zone(s) can absorb the additional conditioned air. The BZD damper is factory-set and does not require adjustment.